I hate Calculus!

[entirelyturbo]

What the hell ever possessed me to pursue an Engineering career???

I'm taking one class this summer: Calc 1. This is my 3rd attempt at this class; I dropped out of the 1st class early (before it counted against me), and I F-bombed the 2nd one, I didn't even bother showing up for the final.

UCF offers a Grade Forgiveness program (not sure if any other schools do) that allows a student to take a class over if he failed it before, and what happens is his new grade counts toward his GPA and his old F no longer does. So even though I told the School of Engineering to kiss my ass, I decided to give this crap one more try to get one of those F's off my record.

Well, I just got through majorly bombing a test not 10 minutes ago. It was on maxes and mins, horizontal asymptotes and antiderivatives. The maxes and mins stuff was about all I got right. The applications problems especially killed me.

It's largely my fault for not getting help sooner. I am on very good terms with my HS math teacher (joys of private school ) but I didn't get a chance to see him until Wednesday, and I was already too far behind for one session with him to help

But yeah, if any of you are considering an Engineering degree in your college future, be forewarned! It's harder than what people tell you! I'll stick with my Journalism major, thankyouverymuch!

[Tleg93]

I sympathize with you subyluvr I had very little fun in calc I, II, III and Diff Eq's. They were all a bitch and my grades were all over the place. I can safely say that it's usually a problem in the basics of Algebra and Trig that causes the confusion that and other factors including interest, instructor, text books and just repetition. One of my issues was that I had too many credits when I took those classes and I was taking the classes simultaneously with classes that had Calc as a pre-req.

For example, I had Calc I with Calc based Physics I, World Civilizations (5 huge papers and multiple lofty books), Tests and Measurements, Computer Solutions to Engineering Problems, and Engineering Economics. When I took Calc II, which was an almighty bitch in its own right, I had Physics II, Prototyping and Design, well you get the idea. I think it's a good idea to take a light semester when you're learning Calc unless you've had a bellyfull of it in high school which I didn't. You have to be ahead of the curve to stack 21 credits on shit like Calc I made the mistake of thinking I had no limits to what I could do but I've since learned that our minds sometimes need time to absorb complex things such as calc. Once the light comes on though it's all downhill from there. It's possible to learn enough to get a C and not fully understand Calc Once you grasp it though there is a beauty to it. I've had the light 'come on' a couple times and when it did it felt damn good to understand.

[some minor grammar edits]

[petridish38]

Well, thats great for me!! I am going to be taking calc next spring! Good thing I only have to go to calc 1 for my biology major!

Andrew

[Legacy777]

Not to sound mean......but that's why when you go into orientation for engineering, they tell you to look at the person on your left......they won't be there when you graduate. It's true. Engineering is not for everybody. You have to bust your ass, have to be motivated, and you really do need to have a natural talent for it.

I didn't have much life in college, compared to the business majors and the like.....but that's ok. It was worth it.......even with the 21 credit semester I had my senior year and making up 10 credits during the normal school year in order to graduate in four years......

As for calc.....it's not overly difficult once you understand the fundamentals....it's however getting those fundamentals that can sometimes be a little difficult. I liked derivatives & integrals....they were some of the easier stuff.

[Legacy777]

The kicker to all the calc & math you take though is that in your every day job....engineering or not.....normally the most math you'll ever do is algebra, and possibly some trig.

[Tleg93]

It's not mean to tell the truth about engineering. While I personally had a hard time in Calc that doesn't mean I didn't do well in my core classes. You do have to have a knack for it but anything can be learned by an intelligent person so long as the smarts aren't stilted in one direction. Does that make sense? I also think it's important to take the classes in the sequence they were intended. I've known a few engineers who were great in class but had no idea how to do things with their hands or how to improvise. I'm not saying I'm a great engineer but I think I can hold my own. The bottom line for me personally is that I made it through. Sure, I'm not ivy league but I graduated and that says something. I just wish I could get in the door somewhere where I can use my talents.

[THAWA]

Not to sound mean......but that's why when you go into orientation for engineering, they tell you to look at the person on your left......they won't be there when you graduate.

That reminds me of that line from futurama where fry went back to college. THe teacher said something like "look to your left, then your right, then in 6 other directions, one of the nine of you won't pass this class." I thought thtat was hilarious

[georryan]

Yeah I took all the calcs. I actually got a math minor because Computer science took one extra credit worth of math compared to engineers which made the minor requirement.

Get to know Calc I, it holds the fudimentals of there rest in the series.

[evolutionmovement]

That's why I went with design over engineering - the math and the tediousness unless you're in a special job where they let you come up with new concepts rather than laboring over small details. Although, in the end, most of my last job entailed engineering over design and it's true that I never needed anything more than algebra and geometry (which I was surprised I could remember).

My other problem is that I'm more verbal than mathematical and my brain has no attention span for math in a classroom environment and shuts off and wanders. It's like I have an impenetrable wall to it that my brain will not get past. The argument goes something like this:

[brain standing in front of wall between extra thinking part and regular thinking part with arms crossed]

BRAIN
No. You won't need that shit.

ME
Yes, but I need to learn it to get other things.

BRAIN
I don't care. Come back with something better.

I have a similar argument with my johnson about women that aren't that attractive.

Steve

[isotopeman]

Maybe I'm alone here in that I truly enjoy Calculus. I wish I could help you with it personally subyluvr. It would be difficult to accomplish much by email, but I'm willing if you have some questions.
I disagree about not using calculus. Even as a German major, I found that the principles of the subject are very useful and intriguing in many everyday applications.
Petridish, I work in Biological Sciences. What aspect of the discipline are you pursuing? Micro, evolutionary, ecology, botany, ...?

[Legacy777]

[brain standing in front of wall between extra thinking part and regular thinking part with arms crossed]

BRAIN
No. You won't need that shit.

ME
Yes, but I need to learn it to get other things.

BRAIN
I don't care. Come back with something better.

I have a similar argument with my johnson about women that aren't that attractive.

Steve

This is great!

[entirelyturbo]

I wish I could help you with it personally subyluvr. It would be difficult to accomplish much by email, but I'm willing if you have some questions.

Thanks for the offer isotopeman, I could take you up on that later this month for my final test

I think my problem is that I'm extremely visual (one of the reasons I like porn so much ). If you scribble a bunch of numbers down and tell me it means this, I'll be like "yeah, uh huh, sure, okay." But bring an actual example of the system in and demonstrate it in front of me, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Some of the geometric concepts I learned in high school are still with me today, even though they're of no use to me right now

[petridish38]

Petridish, I work in Biological Sciences. What aspect of the discipline are you pursuing? Micro, evolutionary, ecology, botany, ...?

Right now, its just "biological sciences" at the community college until I decide what part of biology I want to study (if I don't change my major.... I don't plan on it, but who the hell knows... that's what college is for) But as of right now, I would like to teach biology at the high school level.

Andrew

[Legacy777]

Thanks for the offer isotopeman, I could take you up on that later this month for my final test

I think my problem is that I'm extremely visual (one of the reasons I like porn so much ). If you scribble a bunch of numbers down and tell me it means this, I'll be like "yeah, uh huh, sure, okay." But bring an actual example of the system in and demonstrate it in front of me, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Some of the geometric concepts I learned in high school are still with me today, even though they're of no use to me right now

I'm the same way....very much a visual learner. If you tell me something....or I'm trying to learn I need to see it. Also, writing out things helps me....because I'm seeing it and writing it.

If the prof gives good notes, you might try just recopying your notes. You may pickup some things while doing that.

[NuwanD]

just keep at it, i'm in engineering as well and know all too well the pitfalls of math

[Tleg93]

For me personally, I need to have a coherent aural aspect to instuction to learn things well. My Calc prof for all the Calcs I took was a Chinese guy who I couldn't understand half the time. It realy hindered my ability to concentrate on the subject matter. Whenever this guy would say MathCad I thought it sounded like he was saying Mexican. There were many more examples of his poor speaking ability and I spent most of the class time figuring out what he said in the last sentence, it was frustrating.

[NemesisEJ22t]

I'm also in engineering and i can say that Calc 1 was the easiest math i took in college. Calc II and higher are stupid hard unless you take the time to really understand the material. I'm just glad that i got them all over with, i find that not too much more than algebra and trig is used in most of my classes. BTW, you guys are scaring the hell out of me, i have a feeling that this semester is not going to be easy. I always get nervous about this stuff, but I haven't really even gotten into the hard ME classes here, the worst one i took was Machine Dynamics. Legacy 777, i know you've gone through PSU, give me some hope here!

[Legacy777]

Hey Ben,

What year are you? Sophomore? Your hardest classes will most likely be your junior year, depending on if you're on the 4-year or 5-year track.

However who the prof is can mean a hell of a lot of difference!! So either check around with others, or run them by me if you want.